The Missoulian (MT) reports that “if you go to any of the Race to the Sky sled dog activities in the coming week, bring facial tissue.”  

“’It’s probably a three-Kleenex box movie,’ Pam Beckstrom said Tuesday of a film called ‘Always Faithful ,’ clips of which will be shown at the start and finish lines and at Friday night’s spaghetti dinner at the Lewis and Clark County Fairgrounds in Helena.”  

“The movie is about the more than 5,000 dogs that are working with U.S. military forces overseas in bomb detection and other life-saving endeavors.”  

“Beckstrom and her husband Jack are race organizers who came up with an idea to help them out.”  

“It’s the 70th anniversary of the Camp Rimini Dog Reception and Training Center, nestled in the foothills of MacDonald Pass east of Helena. The camp was used during World War II to train dogs to go to war, with a specific target the invasion of Norway. That never happened, so the more than 800 trained sled and pack dogs were sent to remote areas of Baffinland, Greenland, Antarctica and Alaska on search-and-rescue missions.”  

The piece continues: “Montana Sled Dog Inc., the nonprofit that organizes Race to the Sky, is teaming with the War Dogs Association, Chapter 1, to help offset some of the postage costs. U.S. War Dogs told the Beckstroms it will spend more than $80,000 next year simply to ship the care boxes.”